Ten Easy Ways to Improve Your Media Outreach and Increase Awareness
Want to get more from your media outreach? When the media speaks about you and your company, your audience grows. The following ten tips will help you increase that exposure and awareness.
- Automate What You Can – Media outreach can be a time-consuming process. You could honestly stay on social media all day long, and of course get nothing else done. Leverage technology. Set up alerts and notifications so that you know when a media contact has published online. Automate regular posts on your page as well, so you’re consistently providing value.
- Focus Your Efforts – Don’t try to appeal to every single reporter within a hundred-mile radius. Choose two, or three, and focus your attention on them.
- Be Brief – Adding value on social media doesn’t require a 100-page manifesto. You can add value with a simple tweet.
- Measure Results – This isn’t always easy with media outreach, but put in place analytics and systems to measure what you can. Quantifiable data can be a tremendous asset.
- Educate Yourself – Know what you’re talking about and only share information that you know is valuable (and accurate). You can blow your media outreach with one mistake.
- Research Your Target – Know who your media target’s audience is and what they want, need, and like online. Then provide that type of interaction and information. It’s truly important, and a better use of your time, to provide focused information to key media targets.
- Personalize – Whether you’re pitching a story idea to your local newspaper reporter or you’re connecting with someone on Facebook, it’s important to be personal. This is where your research is important. Find ways to personalize your message so your recipient knows that you pay attention and that your relationship with them is important to you.
- Remember It’s a Long Game – Media outreach doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process and it requires deliberate focus, strategy, and patience. It really is about relationship building. Journalists not only have to think you have a story, they need to know that you’re reliable, trustworthy, and credible. They have their reputation and their audience to protect.
- Broaden Your Scope – Focus on different types of media representatives. For example, bloggers are different than industry publications. The more diverse your focus, the wider your audience.
- Use Brand Ambassadors – Make your audience your brand ambassadors. You’ll obtain a much wider reach if you inspire user-generated content and endorsements. Get your customers and audience excited to talk about you.
Begin at the top of this list and chip away at it. With each new tip or tactic, you’ll see your brand awareness increase and your relationship with the media improve. It takes time and it’s worth it.
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